Online Consulting

re: Online Consulting

Themestoclis — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:18:10 GMT

Nice...

re: Online Consulting

Mark A. Richman — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 02:05:00 GMT

Thanks Steve!

re: Online Consulting

Steve Winter — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:55:00 GMT

Hi Mark!

It has been a while since we last met. If you have seen me this year I think my new favorite word is "SuperSize" :)

In all seriousness. I agree with many of your thoughts and we offer multiple products that are more value based as opposed to exact hour for hour or T&M entry.
We have found real positive reaction from customers on when we offer one or the other.

Perhaps we will get the chance to discuss in person or online.

Congraulations on being at Affinity. It sounds like from Paul exciting things are happening.

Keep in touch

Steve

re: Online Consulting

Mark A. Richman — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 18:55:00 GMT

Thanks for the complement, Conrad.

The school of thought behind my position is that of value-based fees. Rather than charging a client for time (regardless of your expertise), you charge them a factor of their future benefit.

You may have noticed many vendors no longer advertise prices. They have likely moved to a value pricing model. Why charge $100/hr for 400 hours of work if the client will benefit $10,000,000 from it? You can just as easily charge $100,000 for the same work, with a flat fee (given the rationale I published on my site). Then, you've just made yourself an extra $60,000, the client has a cap on their investment, and you both walk away happier - all without the pretense of "billable hours."

The real trick here is determining the client's future benefit on which to base your fee. I defer to Alan Weiss, Ph.D. for a better explanation of the value pricing methodology.

https://ssl.cgicafe.com/clients/summitconsulting.com/books.html#book2

He's a genius.

- Mark

P.S. I had a visit from Paul Edlund here a couple of weeks ago. I recently left NTT/Verio for Affinity Internet.

P.P.S. Does Steve Winter still overuse the word "monetize?"

re: Online Consulting

Conrad Agramont — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 15:07:00 GMT

That's certainly an interesting approach and business model. It's true that paying for a block of time doesn't guarentee the customer anything, but you're not buying for a block of time from a warm body. You're buying time to get answers from a team of experts in the Service Provider field focusing on Microsoft Technology.

BTW, I've read some of your work. Great Stuff!

re: Online Consulting

Mark A. Richman — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 13:48:00 GMT

Why are you charging for time, and not RESULTS? Paying for a block of time does not guarantee the customer anything. A per-incident fee is much more reasonable.

Here is my manifesto "Why I Never Bill by the Hour":

http://www.markrichman.com/consulting.html